falling empires

3-8 adventures start out on the rural/suburban borderlands of a colapseing empire that’s being invaded by hordes of orks and hobgoblins.

Plot Description
The county of Azerath is a a fairly peaceful place composed of many races and is the center of trade for the Bulman empire. Unforcantly the empire has fallen on hard times hordes of orcs, hob goblins, and barbarians from various tribes are sweeping through the Empire destroying all in their path. Emperor Maximus Bulman has pulled all troops from the area to fight a civil war against power grabbing nobles leaving no defense against the hordes but paladins of various deitys have begun recruiting in many towns to fight the hordes. However many have either fallen back to the imperial capital or are too concerned with toppling the local government to care.

Secrets:

A corrupt order called The Knights Of Greed have been taking advantage of the situation by capturing innocents to sell as slaves to sell at the capital. The local trade guilds have used the lack of law to try and destroy each other using the help of mercenaries. Remember there are no prophecies for the players to fulfill only their own ambitions.

Expanding the scenario:

Azerath is a pocket kingdom coming apart at the seems. The old nobility have clung to the notions of absolute power, while the rise of the mercantile guilds, the growth of militant church orders, and a weak army based off of mercenaries rather than conscription or a professional military have undercut everything. If all of the factions involved in the kingdom were to cooperate they could stop the horde and reclaim their lost lands. This is stymied by the fact that each faction claims the right to lead, and that the others should show proper deference. The other matter at hand is that each faction feels that if they capitulate to anyone else, that faction will retain, or will claim supremacy after the horde is defeated.

The greenskin horde approaching Azerath isn't particularly strong, nor is it very effectively led. Rather, as it has advanced, it has faced weak, scattered opposition, or has actually been aided by human factions. When the PCs come into the scenario they are going to be petitioned and otherwise recruited to join at least two of the available factions. The self proclaimed Emperor has a large contingent of soldiers, the bulk of which are mercenaries. The mercenaries are of the less than reputable sort as they work cheap, and many are accepting payment in terms other than coin. The rest of the army is formed of conscripts forced from the prisons and jails and rousted from the poor areas of the capital city. The paladins of the faith are the most competent and potent force, but they are likely to be the smallest. In addition to their magical and physical prowess, they also have a good deal of dogma and ethical requirements that do make them tedious people to work with. The Guilds and the lesser nobles are in fairly equal positions, they have moderate sized groups of soldiers, the guilds fielding yet more mercenaries while the lesser nobles have house guards and a smattering of mercenaries and conscripts.

The Knights of Greed are a problem, as their efforts are actively undercutting the other factions and setting them against each other. The standing plan is that once one or two factions are broken, the Knights of Greed will coerce the remaining factions to work under them and will usurp control of Azerath. They are principally working against the paladins and the lesser nobility. Once one of those factions folds, the Knights will 'pledge' their support to either Maximus Bulman, at a cost, or to the Guildmasters, again at a cost.

The PCs need to play the role of peacemaker and bring at least 3 factions together so that the horde can be repelled, and then deal with the Knights of Greed assassin and saboteurs who will invariably do their best to discredit, defeat, or simply kill the PCs.

Additional Ideas (0)

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Just a heads up about our little operation. There's a few things we always want to see in subs: playability, detailed descriptions, reasonable backstories, good grammar. Punctuation and grammar is a *must* with us. I suggest running your sub through a spellchecker before you post it (there's one on the submission page, if you don't feel like using your word processor). I'd like to talk to you about your content, but honestly I'm afraid I can't read it due to lack of punctuation and spelling :) Start by running that sucker through a spellchecker, and we'll go from there.

A great example of a a plot can be found in Manfred's "To Die For Love." Perhaps that will give you a good idea on how a plot sub should look.

Again, welcome to the Citadel! Hope to see more from you, and to comment on your completed sub soon!

Now I want you to make sure to break up your submission into digestable chunks. Make sure each section is labeled. Make sure to put a space between paragraphs. It increases readability.

Each section, in a plot, should have a purpose... like a set of chapters in a novel have a purpose. It should include the parts of the setting that should be important, important non player characters, and any dramatic events the players are probably going to get involved in. You should always find something in one section, a clue, a piece of information, a trail, a smoking gun, that leads you into the next section.

Remember, you are writing this plot so other people can use it, so it needs all the "cool pieces" for them to use.

Also remember to link out to other submissions. Knights of Greed for example. They would make a great Society Submission.

You've got a nice submission here. I like how you added in the part about a lack of prophecies. It keeps it nice and open-ended, which can be nice. Like Dozus has already said, though, it might be better with some sort of more specific plot, so players have something to build on.

I'd recommend splitting up the submission into paragraphs that all dwell on the same subject, like MoonHunter said. It makes submissions easier to read.

Also, I think the name "Azerath" might be very similar to one used in a video game (Warcraft III, or something). While it is perfectly exceptable to make derivative names out of place names in video games, it's sort of disliked here. It's not very creative, and it can get confusing and annoying if enough people do it. Personally, I suggest you make up a more unique name.

You're going to need to check spelling and grammar again, and a few details added would be nice. The basic idea is intriguing, but this seems more of a setting in which to create a plot, rather than a plot unto itself. Welcome to the Citadel, Brutus.

A pity, while not a great post, it has potential. I like the notions of no prophesies and the different factions which are at odds, both are big departures from the standard fantasy scenario for falling empires.

A golden skull contains the spirit of a person who has been magically entrapped in an ethereal undead status by an ancient ritual. The person was boiled alive in a golden mixture until nothing remained of him except the bones, now covered by a golden layer. Whoever has these golden bones, controls the spirit and can command it. It can assault the living with wind and storm. Manipulate objects and communicate with the living. (Inspired by Anne Rice, Servant of the Bones)